Category: 2019 Travels

Spring Break!!! Plus, this year’s break coincided with our daughter’s break, AND it was her 21st birthday as well as my something-somethingth. So all of that festivity added up to a group trip to this former thespian’s nirvana: Ashland. We secured our primo, oversized campsite at the lake and reserved tickets for a total of five shows, all plenty in advance. All we had to do was clear out a space for the daughter in the car (not so easy!) and drop her at a nice hotel downtown for a week.

We came armed and prepared this time for site RV 21. Last time, we had to park comically far from the middle of the huge site if we wanted to take advantage of the full hookups. This time we brought an extra long sewer hose extension and even purchased a 50′ electric cable, just in case. That one was not needed, but the sewer hose could even have been longer. At least we looked more normal in the site, and that was my ultimate aim.

Sunday’s weather was perfect and we knew it wouldn’t hold, so I plopped myself into the lake as soon as we got there. Richard was super nice and took care of the set up while I enjoyed a perfect paddle in non rainy weather. He also took care of bringing a nice dinner back to Dory from The House of Thai Cuisine. He’s awesome isn’t he? We called Sunday my birthday since I was sick on my actual birthday, and this gave me a do-over.

Monday I was a slow moving camping sloth and did nothing besides play with our new classic awning and stare at the lake. Sadly, Richard did not have the week off and he needed to work during the day. Service was so good at the lake, he’s pretty sure his work mates didn’t even know he was somewhere besides his home office.

Tuesday we hooked up with our neighbors to see “Mother Road.” We enjoyed it a lot and it was excellently well acted. It’s sort of “Grapes of Wrath” in reverse, and it captured modern day heartland hardships, while building genuine affection for the characters at the same time. Now I guess we need to travel Highway 66.

Wednesday there was a break in the rain, so we drove out to Jacksonville and Richard took off on a bike ride up to Applegate Dam. I’d never explored the Applegate valley before, and it was a perfect picture of peaceful, rural countryside, lazily stretched along the pathway of the Applegate River. If you take Sterling Creek Road, you get a good climb through untravelled, woodsy backroads. You will even hit a tiny little cluster of historic structures marking the ghost town of Buncom. I sagged him until we got about up to the lake, and then we just drove around to check it out. We’re pretty sure it was Mount Ashland we were seeing, all snow covered in the distance. There are campgrounds around the lake, but they were all closed until May.

Thursday, I saw a matinee performance of “Cambodian Rock Band.” That one was one of the best this trip, IMHO. Just the right mix of history, humor, and gut wrenching pathos. Plus electric guitars. Very nicely done! That evening we enjoyed a rousing performance of “Hairspray” that brought everyone to their feet in a long, well deserved, standing ovation.

Friday I got to re-connect with Ashland friends, and that is always a highlight. Richard and I spent the afternoon getting in a little walk through the upper trails of Lithia Park, and we topped off the day with a glorious dinner at New Sammy’s Cowboy Bistro. This is a truly one of a kind experience that one must seek out actively, or you’ll miss it. It was once housed in a, well, house. And you’d surely drive past it if you didn’t know about it. It has since gotten a new facade, but the homemade feel remains. It’s as though you know a world class chef personally, and she has invited you to dine on whatever strikes her fancy and is in season at the time. Her husband will pour you a bottle of the best, from his extensive collection. For us, he recommended a light French white, which he noted, “You could get four or five of these without doing much damage.” The menu changes frequently and there is a prix fix, as well as à la carte menu. Out of this world. And our daughter got to partake this time, extra bonus special!

Saturday we had double shows of “Between Two Knees” and “As You Like It.” I thought the first was enjoyable, but needed some polish. Which is fine for a world premiere and material that is pushing the envelope on white privilege sardonic humor. The latter was classic and well done, rounding out a nice mix of theatre.

Interspersed with the shows were dinners and hang out time with our long long time friends and neighbors, who had also arranged to make an outing of it. The trip really could not have been nicer. Ok, I guess it would have been nicer with a little less rain. We noticed that there were fires in the mountains every day, and discovered that these were all controlled burns, an effort of the Forestry Service to stave off some of the disastrous damage done the past few years due to uncontrolled fires. Smart. Hope it works. On our way home, we saw an abundance of evidence of the massive destructive power of the Northern California wildfires from last summer.

Great break! Now the countdown begins for summer travel!

Total miles: 341.0, 15.6 mpg, 6 hours 15 min. Site RV 21. Great LTE for both of us. Full hookups, including sewer. About 10 min drive to town. It gets super windy at times.

Oh, it is good to go out! We sulked at home all last weekend, but at least we took care of Dory’s annual checkup with Dr. Randy, of Randy’s Mobile. When we dropped her off, Randy wasn’t there, so we were helped by one of his technicians. He questioned Richard extensively about the service and things to check, go over, etc. He did an excellent and thorough job taking patient history, but we kind of wanted to explain that, with us, Randy just does whatever he thinks is a good idea and we give him access to our bank accounts, so he can take whatever he needs. It’s that kind of relationship. (Ok, kidding on the bank accounts, but that sure would simplify things). As the technician was getting our paperwork ready, Randy called to say we didn’t need to fill out paperwork. Randy brought Dory back to us on Wednesday, all mani-pedi’ed and in tip top shape. Here’s some advice: if you ever meet Randy in person, do NOT ask him to tell you about how he broke his thumb. Thought I was going to pass out just listening to it.

Friday was raining, but Richard brought the bikes anyway, with a hopeful eye to a Saturday ride. Del Valle has no cell service, and this posed a very specific problem on Friday. My Altoistes Facebook group has been growing steadily and was just one person shy of hitting the 3,000th member mark. I wanted very much to be timely about making the announcement (prizes for guessing the date it would happen were on the line here!). By the time we drove down into the valley and lost service, we were still stuck at 2,999. It was bugging me, so after dinner, I got in the car, drove back out of the campground, and up the long climb until I hit service. Sadly, there was no change. I was in the middle of typing up an “Oh well, I’ll let you know Sunday who the winners were” message, when lucky 3,000th came in!  Cheers all around. 🙂

Saturday it cleared up a little and Richard did go out for a short ride. Meanwhile, I put up our new toy: a Classic Awning. This was the first awning produced by Safari Condo, which was later replaced with the Pahaque front arc awning. That’s the one I’ve been modifying to make into a screen room, but our site had some inconveniently located boulders which would have interfered with that one. We had sent away for this one because Safari Condo started manufacturing them again, and we had some customer referral credits in our account.

So up went the classic! I must say, I do so like it, Sam-I-Am! It is super easy to put up and take down, and does not cut off the view too badly. It feels like a porch, and that was a nice spot to sit in my Nemo chair writing a report. And after the report was done, that was a divine spot to rock in my Nemo chair, wearing my sleeping bag jacket, with my feet up on a properly blue colored little table, while sipping a margarita.

Eventually, after indoor/outdoor his/hers nappy time, we went on a short walk over to the reservoir. California is gorgeously green right now and it’s a reassuring sight to see the water levels nice and full. Wildflowers and Western Bluebirds were out in full force. It’s been a long, cold, lonely winter. And it feels like years since it’s been clear. But, well, here comes the sun!

Sunday Richard rode all the way from the campsite to home. We met up in a couple of spots along the way, just in case he wanted to bail. But he powered all the way home, covering somewhere around forty miles.

It was a good weekend.

Total miles: 41.9, 16.1 mpg, 1 hour 42 min. Site 32, my favorite.

You know what? This is our fourth visit to Bothe Napa SP, and I have been making a tragic error. We’ve spent time hiking, biking, generally lazing around, and that’s all been fun. But it turns out that actually going wine tasting in Napa Valley kicks up the enjoyment by a significant margin. I realize everyone else knew that, but it was a revelation for me that I thought was worth sharing.

This was yet another rainy weekend for California, so the bikes stayed home. On the plus side, the days are getting longer, and this is the beginning of Daylight Savings Time, so campground arrivals are getting brighter. We chilled and binge watched “The Tudors,” to the sound of rain falling on the roof. I still love the sound, even if the season has brought a bit too much water to some communities. Saturday, the lack of pre-planned Dory lunch drove us outdoors and down the road to Gott’s Roadside. I’d never been, but apparently it is very popular, and came recommended by a friend. I had a crispy Teriyaki sandwich on an egg bread bun and it was quite tasty. I found the soft serve chocolate to be underwhelming, but Richard liked his.

Afterwards, we went on a mission to expand my familiarity with wines I see on the shelves in Trader Joe’s. We were attempting to find “Joel Gott,” but ended up at the tasting room of their parent estate, “Trinchero.” No problem, I thought, we’d just stop for a quick tasting and move on to another. Well, after a couple generous pours of their cabernet suite, from bottles hovering around a $95 price point, I was quite happy. And not in any condition to continue the mission. Good thing Richard doesn’t drink. And though I have not improved the likelihood of being able to select a good red within my price range, Richard found an app that may help. Vivino will let you take a picture of a label and spit out information on it, like its rating and suggested retail price. It also saves your ratings and labels, ultimately resulting in suggestions that are tailored to your tastes. Pretty cool.

The last thing I’ll report on is condensation. This is a normal part of winter camping, but clearing it does represent a good chunk of time in the morning when temps get below 50 at night. I have a squeegee and reusable cloths hanging in the bathroom that I use to scooch the water down all the windows and into the tracks of the window frame. From there, it all nicely channels to the outside and onto the ground at Dory’s corners. That’s usually enough, unless it’s really high humidity (like when it’s raining). Then I might need to do some additional wall wiping at the front or back. The cloths I’m using are mini Shamwows, but I literally refer to them as “sham mehs;” ok to do the job, but not thrilling enough to inspire an interjection.

Nice weekend, nice valley. Next weekend I’ll be home sulking. That was supposed to have been site 6 at Wright’s Beach, staring at ocean sunsets. Instead, I’ll probably just do chores and complain. I do have two more opportunities at Wright’s before summer, not quite as awesome at site 6, but they’d better not get cancelled!

Total miles: 65.2, 15.5 mpg, 2 hours 10 min. Site 10. No hookups, but bathroom is open and brand new. Very nice. No dump, so go to Calistoga Fairgrounds. Spotty LTE/no service for ATT, weak LTE for Verizon.

Even though we count ourselves lucky to be able to go out year round, winter is still able to get in some solid licks. This trip to Half Moon Bay was a last minute consolation reservation after my sweet, sweet, lakeside site at Clear Lake got cancelled due to flooding. You know that rush you get when you are able to grab a really hard to get site? I’ve lost three of those this winter and it’s bummin’ me out, man! Still. A Half Moon Bay ocean front site is nothing to sneeze at, and we made the best of our time there.

I had planned to take Friday fully off so we could extend our Clear Lake joy. That didn’t work out, but the site I got was available Friday – Sunday nights, so I was able to do a switch and take Monday off instead. You can’t argue with three day weekends, so all’s well.

We did the usual, ate in places I’ve already mentioned, and watched a lot of rain come down. One place that was new for us was Tres Amigos, which is walking distance from the campground. The food was great, and the churros were made fresh. Delicious and crispy outside, but still warm and gooey inside, mmmmm…….

This remains a dependable location to enjoy a weekend. Yes, I was bummed when the other places closed (especially Wright’s Beach. ouch.). When I saw the call come in from an 800 number and figured it was from a flooded CA state park, I went, “NOOOOOO!” out loud. But I also recall thinking, “I wish we had some really fun place we could always count on, even if it’s raining all weekend.” Maybe this is our place.

Total miles: 57.5, 15.6 mpg, 1 hour 47 min. Site 24, premium. Electric hookups. Good dump on site. LTE for both.

I work in special education, right? So a huge part of what I teach is around “flexible thinking.” There’s a whole curriculum around this and I am constantly talking about it, dropping little special ed phrases all day long; “Uh oh, is this a Rock Brain moment?” “What’s a good strategy to get our thinking unstuck?” “Is this really a level 5 problem?” stuff like that. So one would expect that, when we pulled up to our reserved site to find people already there and unloading their camping equipment, I would be all super flexible. I would notice there were so many empty sites and recognize this was really not a big problem, right?

“But I reserved site 75,” was what playing on continuous loop in my brain. “I specifically wanted that site.” “Here, look, it’s got an asterisk next to it in my notes and that was why I reserved it.” I said nothing out loud and let Richard talk to the people. And once he had established they were not going to move, I just kept driving down the loop, looking for an acceptable alternative. “It’s not 75 though,” is what I was thinking. “Sure, this one looks fine,” was what I said.

So I pulled in to site 97 under protest, spinning Dory to get a good view. I was inwardly resentful the whole time. Once we set up and got the heater going, I noticed the view was way better than 75. In fact, the entire site is far preferable. 97 is now my favorite.

The rest of the weekend was about Richard getting in a recovery ride following some unpleasant dental work, while I wrote a report and played with the awning. I moved another step forward in my ultimate plan of creating a screen room. That part was sewing a skirt to block the bug entry from under Dory. It’s not finished, but what I did seemed like what I intended. What remains is to add material around the bottom flaps of the awning to create a seal, and move loops around to better attach to my suction cup hooks. I still feel compelled to give this my best shot, mostly since I’ve committed this far to it. I have a feeling that one of two things will eventually happen once it’s totally finished: either I will decide that after all that, it’s too much bother to put up, or I will love it until a gentle breeze comes along and tears the thing to shreds.

I am well aware that Clam shelters are now available in blue. We shall see.

Nothing much else to report except the water at Brannan seems to be less yellow. Still, we bring our own water when we go there. Nice place, as always.

Total miles: 39.8. 16.7 mpg, 1 hour 12 min. Site 97. The best site. LTE for both, good solar, river view, nice bathrooms, good dump. So close to home, always pleasant.

Well, this is not the first Presidents’ Day Weekend where we have had to change plans due to weather. We are stubborn people though, not easily deterred from Dory time just because of a few days of 40-60 mph winds. We aren’t completely stupid though, and we decided that perhaps camping right by the ocean in one of the most remote places along Highway 1 might not be a great idea. I had scored an awesome site at Limekiln SP where the ocean is just right there next to you. The park is conveniently located between two of the most likely places along Highway 1 to experience massive mudslides during a storm. And it’s not that we didn’t consider the possibility of being stuck there for five or six months while road repairs might be underway. We did. But Richard is kinda sick and kinda needs to attend to some dental work in the very near future, and that was unlikely to be a good match for risky camping.

So we did some last minute searching for more urban spots, in places where you can do things indoors, or in a car. We landed on Saddle Mountain Ranch and RV Park, a privately run place in Carmel Valley. Its location is convenient as a jumping off point for both Monterey and Carmel. It is like an upscale KOA type place, with a playground for kids, a pool, a badminton court, and nice bathrooms. The sites are close together, but there are at least some low fences in between. The first thing I noticed about our site was that it was under a huge oak tree. We’d seen tons of downed trees on our way in, so that made me just a little nervous. I spun Dory to get out a little from under the big branches and that also served as a way to not look directly at our neighbors. RVs are limited to 30′ and the road leading up to the place gets very narrow, with a killer climb right at the end. They are nice to place a sign for you, right when you’re pretty sure you’re lost, saying it’s just up the hill. It is also a tight little lot once you get up there, but we saw some big rigs able to maneuver it, and Dory was fine of course.

As it was a four day weekend, we got two full days to explore the area. Friday night we started with dinner at a ramen place. Toribashi in Monterey was a great call for comfort food on a rainy evening. Saturday we tried to check out Point Lobos SP, but it was very closed and looked kind of demolished by fallen trees from what we could see at the entrance. So we shifted Plan A to visit Garrapata State Park and Beach by just driving along south down Highway 1. That way, we still got to bask in the glory of the California coast. And glorious it is.

Plan B was to wander around Carmel. That, however, was also the plan of a whole lot of other people, each with their own car, occupying every possible parking space. We nearly gave up there, but I was able to find a sketchy spot by some construction fences and just accepted that the price of a ticket might just be what it costs to park in Carmel (I did not get a ticket). After lunch, we headed over to Carmel Mission, which I’d only ever seen from the outside. That is a “worth it” visit for sure. The whole place has been beautifully restored and hosts museums, gardens, and historical exhibits, all in addition to the lovely basilica. We happened to get there right when a wedding was about to be held, so we killed about an hour wandering the grounds and watching informational videos until we could go inside the church. I really tried not to photograph too much of someone else’s wedding for my blog, but some shots couldn’t be avoided (or were kinda funny). One thing I’ll say, those dresses were a bold choice for a wedding scheduled in February. I know it’s California, but it does get cold sometimes and those poor women looked uncomfortable. Or maybe that’s me making assumptions because I was warm and toasty in my new down sweater.

Sunday we spent pretty much the whole day on the famed “17 Mile Drive” in Pebble Beach. The two themes of the day: holy moly that’s a ton of fallen trees, and wow, we really do not live like wealthy people. I admit to feeling a little torn about all the damage. I mean, I’m sad for all the trees and I recognize there was a huge amount of damage done. But, I’m also betting whoever owns the mid size castles and full size villas, costing who knows how much, will probably be ok. One really sad thing though was the damage done to the iconic “Lone Cypress” tree. This tree has been standing there for over 200 years as a symbol of resilience, come what may, and we just happened to come the weekend it blew down. Now all of the businesses using that tree as a logo will need to cut a third of it off I guess.  But that doesn’t really convey the same message. Or maybe it says, “Yeah, I know it’s beautiful and prestigious here, but sh*t happens to everyone, doesn’t it?”

We did some googling and the price for a night’s stay in some of the hotels can run around a thousand per night. Not sure if that includes golfing, but that apparently is not cheap either. Maybe if I got golf I would understand.

We considered, but rejected the idea of visiting the Monterey Bay Aquarium, figuring it would be at least as packed as the streets of Carmel. Plus, I got to see my fill of otters out in the ocean. But these were the real badass ocean otters, getting continually tossed and turned by the frigid, tempestuous waves. And they’re all, “Whatevs, dude. I’ll just roll with it and crack some dinner on mah tummah.”

Though I’m still a little disappointed we missed out on Limekiln, I know it was a good call. Urban camping is fun too and it was a good way to take it easy. Plus, any time you get to see an ocean sunset, it’s a good weekend.

Total miles: 130.6, 15.7 mpg, 3 hours 2 min. Full hookups. All the sites are similar with no clear winner in terms of privacy or view. Nice bathrooms, nice facilities, wifi at the office, LTE for both of us. About 8 miles from Carmel Beach or 12 miles to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

The weather out there is getting kind of real. I mean, for us, I realize it got real for most of you a couple months ago. Good thing we have spent so much money on new jackets. But it probably seemed colder than it really was down in the valley, what with the snow capped hills and all. This was our third visit to Del Valle, and it sure was nice to have hookups on a chilly, rainy weekend.

We left Friday in steady rain, and though it’s a short drive, it took us a little over an hour to get through traffic. This county park is about ten miles out of Livermore, up and over a climb loved by local bicyclists, and down into a popular summertime destination. The Del Valle reservoir is quite full right now due to all the recent rain, and what was once a dry river bed on our last visit, is now close to overflowing.

I definitely have a favorite site here, 32, because of the spacious and woodsy view. There are also hookups in some of the sites, so we got to live it up with lights and fridge settings. I noted that most of the sites closer to the river were closed, either because of the big puddles in the places you might pitch a tent, or because someone is worried they’ll flood. After getting set up in our site, I can report that the Marmot Women’s Essential rain jacket is indeed waterproof.

The weekend was all about the intermittent pitter pat of rain on Dory’s roof. This was punctuated only by a couple of strolls in the campground, some report writing, and nappy time. Speaking of nappy time, I received an awesome gift from a colleague who noticed that I do not dress up for Pajama Days at school due to lack of appropriate attire. Problem solved. Being easy to shop for is the BEST.

Sunday night it is supposed to snow on the valley floor. We’ll miss that, but I still got to go out for a nightly walk in my new Marmot Montreaux down jacket (complete with fuzzy faux dead thing around the hood). Richard is done with winter, but I’m still enjoying my new gear. I could do a couple more winter weekends.

Total miles: 42.3, 15.7 mpg, 1 hour 19 min. Site: 32. Full hookup site, but the dump outlet is kinda hard to reach and slopes the wrong way, so we just used the regular dump. Sites in the lower loop by the water do not have hookups but could be Doryable. No cell service. With booster, we got spotty 3G. No generators allowed in the campground. Nice bathrooms.

Coworker: What adventure do you have planned for this weekend? Me: Storms in Half Moon Bay. That about sums it up. Did that ruin the weekend? Nope. Would we have felt differently if we only went out twice a year? Probably. One of the benefits of going out so often is that there are no expectations riding on anything. So if we just want to hang out, run the heater, and watch the rain from inside, that is a perfect weekend.

I will say the winds got serious Friday night and we both woke up from the buffeting. I wasn’t worried about flipping over or anything, but you could feel the whole trailer rocking. Saturday we ventured out during a break in the rain for a romantic walk on the beach. Pro tip: romance can only be enhanced by the continuous blasting of sand in one’s face, carried by 40 mph winds. We did get a fair test of my new Patagonia Down Sweater and it kept me nice and warm. Richard gets his down puffy in a week or so, so we’ll be fully outfitted for Winter by the time Spring arrives.

Not much to report. We got take out dinner again from Ark Indian Restaurant, and stopped for lunch at La Mordida Taqueria on our way out of town. Bonus points for the latter: they are located in a large parking lot area with ample double spaces for trailers. The food was also delicious and service was fast, so it’s not just about parking.

We do love Half Moon Bay as a destination. One of these days, I’ll snag a site with a direct ocean view, rather than your standard big rig neighbor view. But it’s close, has a beach, hookups, and ample choices for excellent dining. We got a good sized puddle right next to us but this was as bad as it got. It did make it kind of an adventure challenge to get in and out the door each time. Good times.

Total miles: 51.8, 16.4 mpg, 1 hour 53 min with traffic. Site 11. Electric hookups, solar, nice bathrooms, strong LTE for both, plus pretty good state park Wifi.

This was one well earned weekend. So well earned, in fact, that I am still quite sore. But let’s back up…  Last weekend was the first of two sequentially scheduled weekends at home. What on earth could prompt something so drastic? Well, it turns out we have a bicycle problem. Or at least, one of us does, and we were finally forced to confront the situation in a dramatic way now that our son has a legitimate need for his own. There was no way we were going to fit another in the garage, so we rented the smallest size dumpster possible (i.e. “ginormous petite”) and planned to clear away the contents of twenty years of accumulated junk into it. Knowing we were going to have a dumpster available, we also set a Part B goal for getting rid of the twenty year old play structure. Extra credit and Part C was loading the newly repaired Subie full of toxic chemicals (mostly paint) to be disposed of at an authorized place. Couldn’t we have simply gotten rid of just one of the bicycles, you ask? Let’s just say the dumpster route was way easier.

The project went as planned, including the extra credit tasks, primarily because we told ourselves that if we finished everything in one weekend, we could earn the right to go camping the next. So when it was dumping rain on Sunday and we were out there, slipping and falling down in the mud, bashing out cedar dowels, hauling heavy beams, and sawing apart what could not be bashed, we were thinking to ourselves, “Worth it.”

Reveling in the glory of a mission accomplished ahead of schedule, we arranged to camp at a place in the foothills so that we could facilitate an Alto tour with the couple who’d planned to visit us at our house. Lake Don Pedro is just off Highway 120, the road that goes to Yosemite, and it looked like a nice spot, not too far from the couple. Friday I got home promptly after school and we were in the final stages of the hitching process when we both noticed the hitch seemed really low. We said that out loud even. Then, I looked over at the rear driver’s side tire on Bruce and it was as flat as a tire can possibly be. The culprit was obvious: a big wood screw, undoubtedly from the play structure, was jammed in all the way to the head. I must say, we moved through the stages of disbelief and/or disappointment in a highly efficient manner and just started doing things. One of the things was figuring out which number to call for roadside assistance and getting a person who knew something on the phone as quickly as possible.

As we were waiting on hold, we started emptying all of the camping gear onto the driveway so that we could get to the emergency equipment. This definitely felt like deja vu from the Subie battery incident. With everything removed, we clearly saw words stating, “Spare Tire (if equipped)” and a big huge arrow pointing to a button. Obviously, we pushed the button. Nothing happened. You can now begin to imagine the scene as we just kept pushing the button with more force, and then, with the assistance of tools in order to apply additional force. When the roadside assistance person finally picked up, we were both just barely subduing our frustration and Richard launched into an explanation of how the spare tire button didn’t seem to work. The person then silently assessed our mechanical developmental skill level and asked, “Are you sure you have a spare?” “Well, we think so?” (it seemed like something we would have thought to include when we purchased the tow vehicle). “Can you see it under the car?” We both bent down simultaneously. “Oh yeah! There it is!” At this point we realized three things. First, the spare is not like a full size tire we can just put on and go our merry towing way. Second, it would take far longer to wait for someone to come do this than for us to do it ourselves and try to get a new tire from Acura before they closed. The third thing we realized, critical to our decision making process, was that the button we had been pushing was actually a cap covering the bolt thingy you turn to lower the spare. Ignoring an overwhelming preponderance of empirical data, we decided to trust to our combined problem solving abilities and do it ourselves. I have to say, though we must have looked pretty idiotic throughout the process, we got er done with time to spare (get it?).

Richard called ahead to Acura, where incidentally, we’d just taken Bruce for a service after winter break and were told we should start thinking about getting two new rear tires. Sold! They were ready for me on arrival and I swear they had me rolling again in twenty minutes, with me enthusiastically signing for whatever price they wanted to charge. I was on my way, returning home by 6. I don’t usually like towing in the dark, but decided this too would be worth it so that we wouldn’t feel as though we’d lost the weekend. So all the camping gear went back in, we got hitched up again, and pulled onto the road as the last glimmers of daylight faded away.

The entire drive to Lake Don Pedro was done in the dark, so we were pleased in the morning to see that our site had a lovely view overlooking the lake. Richard went on a bike ride, recommended by our touring couple, and I spun Dory to get a nicer angle. My job Saturday was to get through three reports. It would have been two, but I couldn’t get a single thing done during dumpster weekend. I didn’t mind at all though. I was happy to type away, enjoying the lake view, while not falling in mud or swinging a crow bar around.

Sunday we lazed for a while, sitting in our swing chairs looking at the view. You can just see the snow capped mountains of Yosemite on the horizon and the weather was all blue skies and nicely warm. Eventually, we headed home and got the see the route we’d driven Friday night. I think this place would make for a lovely weekend location. There are electric and water hookups and good cell service. Site 13 is definitely a winner. Anything further along on that loop will give you a view of some kind of boat repair or storage place. I believe there is a boat launch somewhere, so it might also make a nice boating destination. All in all, we were happy, and definitely impressed, that we were able to get out there at all. Nice.

Oh yes, one footnote. Have you noticed how we use ice packs as weights for the camping mat? Great idea right? Well, just be careful if you do this because if you accidentally step on one, the cap flies off, turning it into a water bomb land mine. Richard’s shoe and sock are still wet.

Total miles: 118.1, 17.4 mpg, 3 hours 12 min (2:41 with no traffic). Site 13. Electric and water hookups. Nice, large, paved pad. Bathrooms, showers, good dump. Better signal for ATT than Verizon, but LTE for both.

Nothing inspires a shopping spree like discomfort. Since our winter in the desert, we have purchased additional Smartwool base layers, insulated hiking pants, super warm long sleeve hoodies and pullovers, 2 down jackets, plus a down parka that comes down to my calves and has faux fur trim on the hood. All of this for next winter because weekend temperatures around where we live are really not that cold. We got to test some of the new gear this weekend in Napa and felt overheated, proving we had the right stuff.

Before we got out of town, we had to take care of our ‘home car.’ On Wednesday evening I heard something weird, like a ‘click-whirrrrr-click’ about every five seconds, even with the motor off. I thought to myself, “I’d better get that checked out because it’ll drain the battery, whatever it is.” Thursday morning I still heard it on the way to work. By the time I was ready to go home, the key wouldn’t even turn the engine on enough to show me a warning light. It was fully dead. But it was late, so I called Richard to pick me up in Bruce, and we came back to deal with it after dinner. We’ve never professed to being mechanical people, but the depth of our ineptitude was rather conspicuously exposed here. As we drove over to save the Subie, Richard was Googling, “How do you jump start a car?” We both had the sequence down as we pulled into the parking lot and I prepared to remove all of our camping gear so that I could get to the emergency jumper cables, cleverly stored in the secret compartment underneath everything else. Smart. I’m hauling jerry cans and leveling blocks and camping furniture out of the back as Richard keeps closing the trunk door on me, searching in vain for how to open the hood. I’m shouting “STOP DOING THAT!” and Richard is now Googling: “How do you open the hood of an Acura?” We got it open and both just stared for a while. The Acura is known for being a very quiet car. Apparently, this is achieved by putting all kinds of noise baffling layers of plastic over the engine. How to remove them was not immediately obvious. And the battery appears to be placed in a location way down low, with the negative terminal nowhere to be seen without removing something. So, we gave up, figuring this was beyond our skill set, and it would be better to call a tow truck anyway. Sadly, by the time the tow truck actually arrived the next day, it was pick up time at an elementary school of 800 students. Apologies to all those blocked in while the green Outback was getting hauled away to Subie Urgent Care.

Did any of that throw our camping plans? Of course not. And now we know the phone number to call for insurance covered Roadside Assistance. We rolled out just a little later than normal and arrived at the campground around 5:30. It rained all night, but cleared up nicely Saturday. We intended to be pretty lazy, but ended up going out to top up the propane and found a quick hike on the way back. Much of the talk on the hike was about what we would be wearing if we were to purchase other layers of cold weather clothes.

The Historical Trail in Bothe Napa State Park will take you from the White Church Cemetery to the Bale Grist Mill. Both sites have artifacts dating from gold rush pioneer days, and the grist mill still functions. We got to watch as the huge, water powered mill wheel started turning, causing belts and gears to rotate, like some kind of enormous clock. The end result was the creation of fine flour, ground from wheat berries crushed between two grinding stones, right before our eyes. I have to say, it was pretty cool. Not a place to be if you have Celiac disease because the dust of freshly milled flour filled the air. They sell bags of it as part of their historical society. It was a nice historical park and not too far from the campground. The trail goes up and then down through lovely oaks and across a stream. We had to step carefully because of the recent rain. All told it was a little over a mile each way.

We got in some fine Napa valley dining with a couple of lunch stops at Dean and De Luca, plus a dinner at Pizzeria Tra Vigne. Every now and then we saw the Wine Train pass by and we were reminded of how lucky we are to live so close to this gem of a valley. Note to self: strawberry balsamic truffles sound better than they taste.

Total miles: 69.9, 16.3 mpg, 2 hours 12 min. Site 7. Bathroom in the lower loop will be beautiful – when it is finished. Right now it’s closed. Lovely bathroom in the upper loop and porta potties in the lower loop. Nice sites: 7*, 10*, 16, 17, 20, 41, 45, 47. Inner circle of upper loop is less tippy, but not by the river. Ok LTE for Verizon, but spotty ATT. No dump.